The Phantom's Spell
by Truly Christine
Summary: The Phantom decides to look into his past, and there he finds a hidden secret that might change his life forever.Most of the elements are based off the moviemusical. Also mentions one little thing from 'Wicked' in chapter 4.
1. His Next Lament

**Disclaimer: If I owned Phantom,I'd be very happy, but sadly, I don't. **

He looked at his calender, as if wondering when his life of misery would end. It told him that it was May 2nd, 1871, a few months after the ''event''. He wished he would die, he knew that he would never get another chance to win back Christine. He had been so close. The only thing that occupied his heart now was his grief and eternal love for his angel of music. As he looked at his surroundings, a new cavern in the catacombs that he had found and tried to make a bit homey, he sunk into one of his crying spells. As he wept, he recalled the day when he first brought her down to the cavern he had called home since1831... ''Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation. Darkness stirs, and wakes imagination. Silently the senses, abandon their defenses...''. It was such a lovely song, and she had fallen for the music of the night, what was it that made her turn away in the end, he wondered.

''HIM! It was that Raoul that seduced her and took her...''

He stopped mid thought. He wasn't going to let himself believe this anymore, he knew that it had been his own greed and self-centeredness that had done him in. He hadn't thought about Christine that fateful night in January when he had presented his ultimatum to her. He wanted her for him and only him, no matter what was in her heart.

His crying spells could go on for hours, and this one was no different. He wept until the sound of his sorrow lulled him to sleep.


	2. The Dream

He awoke with a start, at about 2am, sweating and panting. He had had a horrible, terrifying dream. He had seen a gypsy man, with a look of content on his face, escorting a young boy of about ten away, while counting the money the boy''s mother had payed him for taking the child. The boy, whose face was in shadow, was weeping, saddened at the fact that his mother loathed him so much as to sell him to a gypsy. The gypsy took a stick, and beat the boy, telling him to shut up or face the consequences. The boy shut up, but hugged closer his one possession, a monkey doll with little cymbals on it''s hands. Soon the two met up with a group of other gypsies, who proceeded to set up booths, a traveling fair. The man walked up to an empty animal cage, and the boy seemed to know that he was going to be stuffed into that cage, as his muscles stiffened (his face was continually in shadow). The man then instructed the boy that whenever costumers came to the booth, he would ring the monkey''s cymbals, and he would come. Before he left, he shrouded the boy''s face with a potato sack with eye holes. The boy then watched as the gypsy began to set up a cloth booth, but the boy couldn''t seem to be able to read what was written on the cloth. Soon, costumers came, and the little boy, all soot covered and quite nervous, cautiously rang the little cymbals. The man slowly walked into the cage, and knocked the boy to the ground. He proceeded to beat the child mightily, while the boy looked at all the costumers laughing at him. As the boy looked around, he saw one girl that looked entirely unhappy about him being beaten. She too was about ten. Just then, the gypsy ripped the cover off the boy''s face, turned the boy''s face to the crowd, and said ''''Behold! The Devil''s child!''''. At that, the crowd left, throwing coins into the cage for the gypsy. However, the girl that had not been laughing, lingered for a few moments. As she turned, the boy untied a rope that was tied to the cage. Just before she left, he snuck up behind the gypsy, who was picking up the money with a disgusting grin on his face, and wrapped the rope around his neck, strangling the gypsy. When the girl heard this, she turned and stared in bewilderment. She then urged the boy to follow her, and they ran off just as the police came and started running after the boy with shouts of ''''MURDERER!'''' The two children turned the corner a bit before the police did, and she opened a small window of the opera house, and shoved him into the room, telling him to wait for her there. She ran off before the police could see her, and ran into the opera house. The boy was in the room, waiting for her, looking around to see if he could spot her. When she came down, she opened a door, and led him down into the catacombs. That is when he woke up.

He thought what this dream could have meant. He couldn''t recall ever reading a story of the sort, or writing it in a song or opera. Then it hit him, this was his own memory. How he had come to live at the opera house. Now that he had remembered this, he started to think more about that event. He had been ten then, that had been forty years prior. He was surprised to think that he was fifty years old. He had never remembered what year he had been born. He didn''t feel fifty. He looked himself over. He didn''t look fifty either. He was interested in why he looked and felt thirty years younger than he actually was. He felt though, that he would explore this interesting fact later in the morning. For the time being, he wanted to know who that girl had been. The girl who had saved him. For the life of him, he couldn''t remember. He searched every inch of his mind to recall that girl''s name, but no matter how long he thought, or how close he thought he got to remembering, he couldn''t quite get it. He remembered full well that she had told him her name, so he knew that he knew it. As he thought, he grew weary once again, and fell into a much easier sleep than before.


	3. The Search for an Answer

When he awoke later in the morning, he bounded out of bed with his newfound hope in life. For if he was fifty, yet felt and looked twenty, he knew that there might be something good at it''s heart. Something to redeem his empty, miserable life. Yet even as he jumped into his clothing, itching to search for the answer, his hope dwindled, for how was he to come about the answer! He thought for a way, thinking of everything he could from A to Z. As he raced through his mind, he discovered something that he hadn''t expected to find, the name of the girl from his memory dream the night before. Her name had been. Fleur Giry... Madame Giry. He remembered the way that she looked now. She looked their age, fifty. He couldn''t think of a reason why he was biologically twenty, although he was fifty technically, and she was fifty all the way around. He sat down at his table to eat his breakfast, a piece of bread, and to think of a way to discover the solution to his riddle. As he was getting up, down-hearted at not being able to think of anything, he thought

''Perhaps if I look into my ancestry, there will be woven in, the reason why I am not truly my age'' He figured to go out into the library, to look at the archives of birth, death, marriage records etc. He was about to go through the corridor, the one leading to his former home, and to the underground river, which led to the outside world, when he realized what would happen if he went outside. He was a murderer, and a rather obvious one at that. Everyone knew of his disfigurement. If he went out, he would be shot on sight. He decided to go shrouded. As he walked into the cavern that he had once inhabited, he whisper screamed to himself

'' No, no get out of my head!''. The memory of that night was flowing back ''Order your fine horses now, raise up your hand to the level of your eyes! Nothing can save you now except perhaps, Christine!...'' What really broke his heart, he thought, as he sped up to get away from the place, was when Christine sang to him '' The tears I might have shed for your dark fate, grow cold, and turn to tears of hate!'' Oh but the worst part, the kiss. Oh how he could he forget that one moment of ecstacy when he thought that the only person who he truly loved, loved him back. He screamed in agony at the thought. He thought that his torture was over, but as he got into his boat, he remembered that first night that he brought her back to his home. '' Those who have seen your face, draw back in fear, I am the mask you wear'' ''It''s me they hear'' '' Your (My) spirit and my(your) voice, in one combined, the Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my (your) mind'' He almost threw himself out of the boat in despair when he remembered this, but he thought that if something came of what he was trying to find out, maybe he could get Christine back, although he knew the chances were as slim and frail as he had become. When he stepped into the ruins of the opera house, he saw the damage he had done for the first time.

''Those idiots deserved...''

He stopped mid thought again. He had to remember not to blame anybody but himself for his crimes. After carefully making sure that he was carefully covered, he walked outside. Everything was the same from the last time he remembered being outside. The caféé that had been across the street from the theatre, was still there. He hurried on his way, as the library was on the other side of the city, and perhaps also because he saw someone he recognized, Meg Giry, and was afraid that he would be recognized. Luckily, she hadn''t recognized him, in fact, she hadn''t even seen him.

When he got to the library, he walked up to the desk and asked the attendant for access to the archives. The attendant, who was obviously drunk (no attendant would allow a person who hid his face, access to the archives, because they could be a murderer looking for information on a possible victim) unlocked the door with a key that he had left on the desk (also a sign of drunkenness) After the door closed behind him, Erik started to work immediately to find any record of his family name, which had come back to him in his memory dream. ''Riche, Riche" he whispered to himself repeatedly. He thought of it as a mockery, as the only thing that he remembered of his parents is that they had been poor peasants. He found what he was looking for after searching for about five minutes. He found full blown biographies of all his family members, records and many things. He found his birth record.

''Erik Riche, born July 11th 1821, to Gabrielle Espoir and Henri Riche.'' He decided that he should search through his mother's files first. He loathed her with every fiber of his being. How could a mother sell her child to a gypsy, even if he was disfigured and a bit grotesque. He found her biography as he remembered all he could about his mother.

''Gabrielle Espoir was born April 29th 1801.." that he found to be unimportant. He skimmed through it, and around the middle of the book, he struck gold. "Gabrielle lived in constant fear of a witch, whose cat she had killed. She never knew exactly what that witch had done, or would do, so she was always very cautious. It was rumored that the witch had cursed the girl, as she ran away. Whispering, the witch said, ''To the girl who has destroyed my familiar, my beloved cat, let my wrath rain down upon thee! I declare that any child that you shall bear from this point, shall be condemned to an immortal life of suffering and shun. I don''t care how, but somehow it shall be done! At the age of twenty, they will be forever, never to be pitied and revered as an elder.' No one knows what happened to her only child, Erik" Devastated at the fact that he could never end his misery, he read on until he read...


	4. The Discovery of a Lifetime

**Disclaimer: Wicked and Phantom **

** are both very good**

** I don't own them**

** but I wish I could.**

He could hear Christine's voice with every word that he read."Past the point of no return, no going back now, our passion play has now at last begun. Past all thought of right or wrong, one final question, how long should we two wait before we're one...'' He wished that the opera he had written would be true. He was reading

"...but later, the witch's conscious caught up with her. She, in a dream spoke the words 'any child borne to the killer of my familiar shall also have power to grant the immortality to one other human. One...one...one' then the witch died" He was crushed. She said that he could grant the immortality to one other, but she hadn't left the spell. He was going to have to find it on his own. He knew that his mother was from some town just outside of Paris, Acôte Dela Rivière. It wasn't far, about a six hour trip. He flagged down a coach at take him there. As he got in, he looked around at the particular coach that he was in. He moaned when he realized that this was the exact same carriage in which he had driven Christine to the cemetery earlier in the week of that horrid January night. He wondered how he would ever find the spell. Witches didn't really have spell books, he thought. Thinking of at last hearing his angel sing again, he gently drifted into sleep.

He was awoken a few hours later by the driver of the carriage, who announced that they had reached Acôte Dela Rivière. He thanked the man, and started walking toward the town square, where he would ask people where the witch had lived. He figured that there must be some thing in her house that would tell the spells. He asked a kindly older man where the house was.

"See that hut over there, that's it"

"I see no hut"

"If you look closely, you will see it.". Sure enough, he did, and made his way over there. The hut was small and cramped, as one would expect a witch's lair to be. He thought that it must have been even tighter when the witch was alive, as he could see most of the things either completely rotted down to shards, or starting to rot. He thought he would have a hard time finding something useful, however, he spotted it almost immediately when he looked at the floor. It was the only thing in the hut that wasn't rotting, even the hut itself was rotting. It was a book, a thick book... of spells. It was dusty, like the kind of book that hasn't been touched, let alone used, in many years. There was so much dust, that everything had become illegible. Erik blew it off (with difficulty though, as lately his lungs stared giving him trouble) and it read,

"The Grimmerie" He knew that this was it, he was at last going to hear his beloved angel Christine sing again. So excited that he thought his heart would burst, he chanted the words it said for the immortality spell "Til den at jeg elsker, eller den at jeg forakter, jeg bevilger De evig ungdom, og evig liv!"


	5. Who Dares Harm an Angel

Christine Daae (now Countess de Chagny) was finishing up her journal entry with the date.

""Raoul, what is the date today?"" She asked her husband, who was almost asleep.

""May 2nd""

Christine now wrote on the piece of notebook paper that she had recorded the day''s events on

""May 2nd, 1917"". She was amazed at how almost fifty years had passed since the opera house incident. She sat at her vanity in deep thought. She thought about the angel, how he had pined for her. She remembered how she had admired him so. She would never forget his guardianship... ""Angel of music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory! Angel of music, hide no longer, secret and strange angel!"" The words, still occupying her mind all those years. She remembered she had left him all broken and bruised from the emotional torment. She hadn''t given him much thought that night. She pitied him so. ""How is he doing, what happened to him?"" she thought. She did love him... a bit. She decided that she had made the right choice. While she had been thinking, she was absentmindedly staring into the mirror of her vanity. She liked the way she looked. She looked nothing at all like the sixty-three year old that she was. She grew tired, and went quietly to her bed, although, about half-way there, she stopped dead in her tracks. The thought had just come to her, she looked forever young, and people thought you were a witch, an evil witch, if you were, youthful for your life. She stood there, anxious and panicked, trying to think of something she could do, she didn''t want to die! She started pacing, nervously she kept putting the lamp on and off her vanity, clenching her fists, knuckles white with the pressure. After a few minutes of this tense thought, she breathed a sigh of relief (quietly, as not to wake Raoul). She picked up her lamp one last time, and went to kiss her family goodbye, she was leaving. She could see no alternative. Full of grief for leaving, she gently walked down the corridor, and poked her head into the room which her son Gaston and his wife, Marie, shared. She softly kissed her son the forehead, and went into the room where her granddaughter Belle, slept. The kissed the infant as well, and finally ran out from the gates. As she passed the groves of trees that surrounded the manor, she realized that she had no place to go. She stopped awhile by her favorite tree to think of a place to go. She had never been there so late at night before. She figured that it was about midnight. She found it rather relaxing, the owls softly hoooing, and the crickets chirping out the sweet melody of spring. All of a sudden, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, she was being watched. Ever so cautiously, she looked around her. Left, right, up, back, everywhere she looked, things were as calm and serene as the stories she heard as a girl from mythology. She went back into thought

""Perhaps the ruins of the opera house, no that''s too obvious, I am so afraid to be found, but then again, perhaps the phantom will be there, I so wish to know what became of him! Oh, who am I kidding, he''s likely been dead years now!"" Just then, the feeling came back, she knew for certain now that she was being watched, but just as she got up, to run off, there came a knock to the back of her head, which knocked her down. She was being robbed! She never thought such criminals lived near the manor. The man had something wooden, and was beating her fiercely, with many a blow to the face and head, likely to knock her out, so he could take her things, without her fighting back. Once the man had beaten her, and taken her purse, he left her bleeding and unconscious by the trees.


	6. Angel in the Ground

Christine slowly opened her eyes, she felt weak and weary. She felt a sense of warmness, a warmness like a cold, hard place, suddenly warm and soft. Her vision was a bit blurry and teary. She blinked a bit to clear it up. She couldn''t imagine where she was. She was lying down on a blanket, in a small stone building. She tried to sit up, although her attempts were in vain. She was too weak, and decided to roll to her side instead. She heard a loud knock and felt a sharp pain in her head as she banged her head into something smooth and wooden. She tried at use this to pull herself up. She gripped the top of the, whatever it was, and tugged herself to her feet. She almost screamed when she saw where she was, she was in a mausoleum, specifically, her father''s. She was about to go running out as fast as she could possibly go, when she remembered that she needed to hide from ever being found, or run the risk of being named a witch, so she settled herself next to her father''s coffin. She wondered who saved her. At first she was convinced that it was Raoul. He came outside the next morning looking for her, and discovered her bleeding. He brought her to a hospital, and she was alright. However, she had the nagging thought that she had ended up here, in the mausoleum. Maybe it was a stranger, or perhaps Meg, come to check up on her. But oh, why oh why had she had ended up here. ""Ugh!"" she moaned as she remembered the last time she had come near the door of the mausoleum. She started to softly sing ""Wishing you were somehow here again, wishing you were somehow near, sometimes it seemed, if I just dreamed, somehow you would be here..."" The song had deeper meaning now, she couldn''t think of why, but it so much more to her now. Perhaps she was missing Raoul, or maybe even Erik, her angel. Or maybe both. Anyway, before she could think of what she should do next, she heard a crowd of mourners outside. She peered out through the small crack between the gates, and she saw, to her amazement, that it was snowing! It had been late spring when she had beaten, had she really been in a coma for all those months? For her amusement, she watched the mourners. They were burying what seemed to be an empty coffin (it appeared to be very light, the people were carrying it with ease). The person holding the coffin was young, maybe thirty-five years old. He looked oddly familiar, his eyes, nose, posture...it was her son Gaston! Who could possibly have died? She watched as Raoul stepped forward, knelt down, and wept. She couldn''t think at all of who the person who had died was, she looked and saw everyone she knew that had been alive when she left. It started to get dark, so she went to get a match to light a lamp that she had found. As she sat watching attentively, thinking of who could''ve died, in the flickering light of the lamp, she started to count up the months she must have been gone. ""There was May, then June, and July, Oh! I missed Belle''s first birthday! Oh well, at least I can see her now. Then August, September, October, it must be November now. Lets see, that''s six months, half a year!"" She wondered then perhaps, no, it couldn''t be! ""Maybe, they have assumed me dead, and are now giving me a funeral"" However much she loathed to admit it, she knew it must be the case.

She waited for all the mourners to leave. She hoped Raoul would linger though, so she could get one last glance at him. Unfortunately, he was apparently to grief stricken, and left immediately. She suddenly remembered as she watched him leave, a song that they had sung, years prior ""Say you''ll share with me one love, one lifetime, say the word and I will follow you. Share each day with me, each night, each morning..."". She longed to run after but she knew she couldn''t. After that, another song popped into her head ""Softly, deftly, music shall caress you. Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you. Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind, in this darkness that you know you cannot fight, the darkness of the music of the night."", and she was comforted.

She started to get hungry, as it must have been quite a while since she possibly could have eaten. At two in the morning, every noise at last had ceased. She new now that she could sneak out to get some food. She gently opened and closed the gates, as to not make a sound that would wake up anybody near the cemetery. Down the stairs she went, and before she went anywhere else, she stopped at her grave. She thought it ironic that she was standing before her grave, yet she was very much alive. It read

""Christine (then an image of her underneath, and underneath the image read...) Countess de Chagny (below that) 1854-1917 (below that) Beloved wife and mother"" It was simple and sweet, she loved it, although she was still alive. After she had looked over her grave, she walked through the cemetery to the gates. The trip was peaceful. The moon was full, and the snowflakes still fell. The moonlight glanced off the snowflakes, and make small patches of light on the ground, broken only when a softly hoooing barn owl flew overhead. When she reached the gates, she walked down the road in the forest on the other side, as to hide from any human that may pass. She decided however, that it was not safe to go to Paris, as she was well known, as the countess, and as an actress (after the opera house burned down, she still acted, and at the new opera house they had built on the other side of the city, she became a prima donna. A nice, generous prima donna though. She would never forget that Italian snob, Carlotta for as long as she lived) so she was likely to be recognized anywhere she went. This wouldn''t be good at all, since they had pronounced her dead. She would very much be cast as a witch. To be safe, she walked to the nearest small town, which she could never remember the name of. She walked into their caféé, which happened to be open because it was run by a drunkard who slept all day and was drunk all night. At least that is what he said when Christine asked him why the place was open. So she ate and went back to her home in the cemetery.


	7. Raoul's Fury

"June 29th, 1920", Christine read aloud as she finished checking over her journal entry. She had been living in the mausoleum for three years already. She didn't think it was so bad, though every day found her more and more lonely. She started to wish greatly that she had never left Raoul. She wondered what he was doing. Was he thinking of her? She longed to be back in his arms. Just as she was going to bed, she remembered something. June 29th was some day that had been significant. She couldn't remember though. What was it that made it so important? Had it been the day that her father passed away? Or the day she got her first role as a prima donna? Then she remembered. It came back when a song that she remembered singing returned to her memory. "Think of me, think of me fondly when we've said good bye. Remember me, once in a while, please promise me you'll try. When you find that once again you long to take your heart back and be free, if you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me." It had been fifty years since the fateful night when she starred in "Hannibal", the night when the whole saga with her, Raoul and the Phantom began. That night had changed her life forever. She wondered, why had the Phantom chosen that time to proclaim his only and one true love. Perhaps he had been longing for her, and he had been at the breaking point, not being able to tolerate his loneliness any longer. How she longed to see him one more time! She didn't know how any person could deal with such shun. She thought that anyone faced with that much misery, would kill themselves. Then she went to sleep.

That night she had the most interesting dream. She was walking back from that little café that she went to most nights for food. She was in the woods, walking by a grove of pine trees. It was quiet, not even the owls were making sounds. As she wandered, thinking about her granddaughter, all of a sudden she heard, a whisper almost, "Christine". It sounded like...no. It couldn't be the Phantom, maybe it was just the wind, and she _thought_ she heard him sing her name. She kept on walking until she reached the gates. Upon opening the gate, she heard... "Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation. Darkness stirs, and wakes imagination. Silently the senses, abandon their defenses." She stopped cold. She knew that it had to be him this time. They were the only two people that knew that song. She longed to hear more. It had been forever since she had heard her angel sing. Softly she sung "Angel I hear you, speak, I listen! Stay by my side, guide me." She hoped he would continue to sing, but as soon as she had gotten her final words out, she awoke.

A bit startled, she wondered what had brought on this dream. She initially thought that it was just because she had thought about Erik, the Phantom, before she went to sleep. Unfortunately, there was that nagging memory, that when she was a girl, he would visit her dreams, and sing to her. Perhaps, he was doing so again. She hoped it was the latter of the two. She wanted so bad to talk to him, to hear him sing again. She looked in every corner, at every wall, and even looked outside. She didn't see him.

A few nights later, she was again visited by a strange dream of the sort. She found herself inside the ruins of the opera house. She was in the little chapel where she always had mourned her father. So there she was again lighting a candle for her father. She was weeping. All of a sudden, she saw something out of the corner of her eye, and stopped crying. A little black, swish of something going around a corner. She was certain it was Erik. She followed around the corner, and stopped, for he was standing there in front of her. As she stood there watching him, he started to sing "Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. Leave the thoughts of the life you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be! Only then can you belong to me." While he sang, she found herself walking towards him and taking his hand. She then awoke.

She found it interesting that she would have these two dreams not so far apart. However, before she could think of a reason why this occurred, a tragedy struck that would leave no time for thoughts like that. The morning after the second dream, she was getting dressed, when she heard a crowd of mourners come near. She finished getting dressed, and turned to see where they were headed. She saw them headed towards the mausoleum. She fell to her knees and wept silently, for she knew that it had to be a death in her family. She knew it who was, but it was just so hard to face. She knew that it was Raoul that had passed away. Her dear Raoul! How could she have done such a thing as to let him live his final years alone! She never got a chance to be with him in his final moments! How could she! She almost ran out to throw herself on the coffin to try to apologize to his soul at the very least. She was halfway to the gate when she remembered that she couldn't.

"Oh what have I done! I can't even go out there to eulogize him! My beloved Raoul! How could this possibly get any worse!" She turned her head to face the crowd, and while they were placing the coffin in the ground, her little granddaughter Belle, who was four by that time, got down on her knees and exclaimed to god "first I lost my grandma, and now my grandpa! Why god are you such a meanie!" Then she ran up to her father and mother as she cried. Christine chuckled a little at Belle's adorable use of "meanie" but almost died of shame when she heard how upset she was. She didn't know how she could stand much more of this without flinging herself outside and jumping down into the grave with him. She had to watch while weeping silently. How could she do it? She managed it, though with every passing second, she wanted to more and more to hold her breath, as to suffocate herself. She was now going to have to live with the guilt of letting him die alone! She didn't know what else she could do. She turned to her father's coffin, and said to it "Oh father! I hope you can hear me from Heaven, I wish you were here to help me, oh whatever shall I do!" She finally decided to cope by hiding, so that she couldn't see or hear anything from the funeral. She tucked herself away in a corner, and covered her ears until it was done.

She hoped everyone was gone when she came out of her corner. She had managed to contain herself and calm down, but she knew that she might drop into spasms if there was someone left to watch mourn. Luckily, there was nobody around. It was the end of twilight, almost night. She figured that there might be a guard or two outside, so she went to the gate and took a look outside. Seeing completely deserted cemetery, she opened the gate slowly, took another look around, and shut it quickly. She ran quickly to Raoul's grave, so nobody could see that she had come from the mausoleum. She knelt before his grave and read:

_Count Raoul de Chaney_

_1849-1920_

_Beloved husband and father_

And she wept. "Oh Raoul my beloved, if you can hear my voice rise to heaven, please forgive me for leaving you! Please understand, I meant no harm to you! Oh forgive my sin!" As she wept, she started to hear something faint in the distance. At first, it just sounded like an incoherent jumble of words, but then it stared to come closer. As it advanced, she started to make out some of it. It sounded like, like, like Raoul! But it couldn't be! "His spirit must have come down from Heaven! Oh Raoul _please_ forgive me! At least you've come to me." She started listening to the words of the song he sang. "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime..." She didn't remember the tune sounding so, _angry_. It was getting closer, and the closer he came, the angrier the song started to sound " Christine, that's all I ask of you." Her face was flushed red with fear, she cried out "Raoul, I understand that I've hurt you but please understand, I never meant to! Don't hurt me! Please! I do still love you, whether you believe me or not!" With that, she got so frightened, that she fled the cemetery. As soon as she reached the gate, she flung it open and raced out. When she slammed the gate shut, she fell to the ground, panting, trying to catch her breath. Before she stood up, she realized that night had fallen. She was afraid of what was Raoul's fury, so she decided not to go back to the mausoleum for a while. Since she was under the cover of night, likely 11:00, she decided to go for a walk through the forest.


	8. A Forest Enchanted and a Promise

Christine walked slowly through the jumbles of oak trees in the forest. As she travelled, her mind was racing with thoughts on what had just happened. She realized that she had only thought about the personal consequences, when she left home that May night three years ago. She hadn't really thought of how upset Raoul might be. "After all, we had made the promise to each other, after all that we went through in the Opera House. If all that wasn't a proclamation of love, what is?" She knew that she had taken into consideration the promise when she thought f leaving, she couldn't reason why she had disregarded it. "Oh Raoul, you won't even listen to me now! If I had only known, I wouldn't have left you. I didn't realize it would be our final time together; I didn't think about the possibility of your death. If you'd only listen to me!" She walked for an hour, thinking of Raoul the whole way. On her way back (she hadn't wanted to get lost, so she retraced her exact steps on the way back) she was so caught up in her thoughts, that she failed to notice the fallen tree in front of her.

"Ouch!" She whisper-screamed, as she picked herself up off the ground. " Of all the stupid things! Trip over a tree." she said to herself as she wiped the dirt off her dress. As she started away from the fallen tree, she stopped short. She had thought of something "hmmm, I don't remember that tree being there when I first passed be this spot. It is a very large tree, I would have definitely noticed it, and I would have heard such a behemoth fall even from far away." She kept walking now, although she kept thinking about how the tree had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She thought that there was no way that it could've fallen, she had only been away from that spot for five minutes! She was very frightened by this, her walk quickened, she was breathing more heavily, she was shivering with cold, though it was the end of June. She heard a sound, and she stopped, shooting nervous looks around her. All of a sudden, she broke into frightened sprint. She kept looking, terrified, behind her, racing, about to scream, when, BANG!

Christine opened up her eyes. Everything was spinning, and she had a massive headache. She waited for a minute so her vision could become clear, and she saw what had made her fall. In front of her was this large wall. Sh must have been looking behind her, and rammed right into the wall, not having seen it. She took a look around her. It couldn't have been more than five minutes, that she had been knocked out. She looked at this wall in front of her. Again, she couldn't remember it being there. Again, it made he feel uneasy, with all the supernatural things happening to her in the past few years. She decided to just move on, and forget about the tree and the all. However, first she had to pass the wall. She looked to the left, trying to see where the wall ended. The wall was seemingly infinite, and she couldn't possibly see finding the end of it in that direction (to go around it) before sunrise, which was in about three hours. She looked at the right, and discovered the exact same circumstance. She looked up at the wall, and realized that it was only an inch above her head. "I suppose I should go over it, but how unladylike! Well, if it's all I can do" she takes one more look to the sides " I'll have to do it" . She looks about her. What could she possibly use to hoist herself over the wall? She spotted a tree branch hanging within her grasp, and she grabbed hold of it, and pulled herself up unto the branch. Since it was thick enough for someone to walk on, she walked across it, and over onto the top of the wall. She jumped down (of course holding down her dress so it wouldn't fly up, which would be quite unladylike) and started off again for the cemetery.

When she got to the gates of the cemetery, she was extremely relieved. She quickly, yet quietly opened the gate and ran inside like a frightened mouse. "What an experience!", she thought to herself. "It must have been the work of the angered Raoul. Oh my dear Raoul, I never meant to harm you truly! I feel so incredibly guilty!" She heard thunder, as she continued to walk back to the mausoleum. " I guess it is about to rain. Great, dark and dreary. Exactly how I feel." She passed Raoul's grave after she said ths, then stopped, turned and knelt next to it. As raindrops started falling, she exclaimed "Oh my Raoul, I beg for forgiveness! I truly never meant for your soul to be shattered. And I promise, if I don't die in my sleep tonight, I shall do whatever I can to join you! I swear this to the holy name of God!"


	9. The Passion's Climax

_Chapter 9: _

_The Passion's Climax_

"July 9th ,1920.

After these weeks of pondering, I still don't understand why I did what I did in May of those years ago. A witch, what does witchcraft matter? I would've died valiantly. I would've gone down with the knowledge that I was always truthful and never a deserter. Life is precious, but what does it mean when gained by lies and deceit? Hopefully I will die soon, and purify my soul.

I am sure that soon I will perish, perhaps another day or two, of course, as you know, I've been starving my body, to try to fulfill my spirit. I think I'll go for a walk. If I can."

It was the dark of night, around midnight. Christine had been thinking about the promise she made to Raoul's spirit that past week. She'd found that she'd rather die for the good name of love, and certainly she was dying (Christine was always one to keep a promise). After having starved herself for the past ten days, her body was a twig ready to break. She was severely emaciated, and barely had the strength to stand lately.

Christine tried to stand, to go on her walk, and fell. She spread her arms out and tried to push herself up, and again failed. She figured by pulling up with her father's coffin, she'd be able to stand. She tried, and with much difficulty, (she was gripping the coffin so tightly, that her veins were protruding and her hands were pounding) she pulled herself up.

Christine stood at the gate of the mausoleum, and gazed out into the night. She was pondering. A little thought before going on her final excursion into the world. "I wonder what it will be like to leave the world. I don't know what will happen to my soul in the passage from world to Heaven. Will I be purified of my sins, or do I continue my life as on Earth. All I know is that once I get to Heaven, I will be with my dear Raoul again. He shall forgive my deserting, for I will have returned to him, and showed him my fidelity to him." She creaked open the gate, and (leaning on the wall as not to collapse due to her weak and brittle bones, and muscles that could barely hold up a mouse's weight) gently stepped onto the stairs. Suddenly, she heard a stir from inside the mausoleum. She whirled her head around, but saw nothing. "Should I think it a rat, as it likely is, or should I think it a sign from a spirit? My life has become a whirlwind of magic lately, it surely is a spirit trying to communicate with mine!" She let her muscles give in, and fell to her knees. She softly whispered "Raoul?" , while trying to crawl inside the mausoleum. All she heard was the calm quietness of the night. "Whatever, or whoever, it was must not have been Raoul" she thought "or he would have spoken to me." She clawed her arms up the wall to lift herself up. She walked out of the cemetery, but not before stopping at Raoul's grave. She knelt, or fell rather, before it and put her face up to it, and stroking it, she stated "You _will_ forgive me" almost in a begging tone. As she said this, she heard another stir from behind the graves. She figured she must have been dreaming it, as there was nothing there the first time. Though she thought this, she was so ill, that she wasn't in her right mind, and walked about the grave to try once again to find the source of the noise. Frustrated, she said "Once again, nothing is there. Although, if I hear this noise once more, I shall know there is someone trying to distract me!" Although quite distracted, she was determined to take her final walk. As she passed throught he gates, she wondered "Perhaps this is Raoul, perhaps he doesn't wish to speak with me for he doesn't trust me. He doesn't think I shall keep my promise to him. As I promised him on our wedding night that I should never be tempted to leave him again, and I broke that years ago, when I left him in his dying days. Oh, if I could just take all that away, I'd, I'd... Oh I don't know anymore, I can't think straight anymore! Oh Raoul, take me to your glory!" She walked into the woods, the moon made an eery glow, a calm serene glow on the ground through the trees, as if something ominous was looming. She thought of the strange things that had happened to her the last time she'd ventured out in the woods. She thought about that time when the wall appeared out of nowhere, and then, out of nowhere, she hears "Christine", in a melodic tone. She turned her head about, looking behind the tree, in the tree, everywhere, and she saw nothing. "It must be that my mind is dying, I am hallucinating things. Raoul is angry at me, he has made this point to me, he needn't have to force it in, he's not like that." She started to walk away, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw something etched into the wood on the tree. She turned slowly, taking mighty breaths that made her chest tighten in pain. When she saw what was there, a great sigh of relief came from her. She saw a face carved there. She looked at it, getting closer until her nose was barely a centimeter from it, and tried to see it in the dim light. It took her about five minutes to figure out what it was, and when she did, she screamed in fright and ran deeper into the woods. "Raoul, why must you do this too me! I understand that you are upset, but please, I understand! Leave me be!!!!"

She ran screaming through the trees. Tripping and stumbling, she looked back often, breathing short and heavily. Her heart was beating so that it burned her chest, and she felt her lungs wilting. She found a clearing and stopped for a moment to rest. All was calm now. Christine was regaining use of her lungs as she thought of the silence now surrounding her. Their was an owl hooting in the background, and the wind was rustling the leaves. Out of this calmness, an earsplitting high-pitched screech came from behind her. She turned and saw a flying rat scratching at her face. She threw her arms up and wildly flung them about, trying to ward off the ghoulish creature away from her face.

"Christine! Christine!" screeched the evil thing.

"Raoul, forget me, please. I know that deep within your heart, you still love me, and if you cannot let go of your rage, than in lovingness, forget me, and leave me be!!! I beg of you!!"

She ran through the woods to the gate of the cemetery, while still flinging her arms around hoping to discourage the possessed bat. She ran through the gate and slammed the door, which caught the bat, and an awful crunch was heard, as the bat broke in half.

"Oh, how is this happening, why? Oh beautiful death, smother me with the goodness that can only be received through your charity; whether with you I be redeemed or not." She was sitting by her grave, as her head was beating on her from the inside. She then heard from around her: "Your faith has been challenged, and you have lost. Goodbye Christine."

"Alright, I leave you rest at peace" and she cried, lurching back and forward with her grief and regret.

She crawled to her mausoleum and pulled herself to the coffin of her father, and whispered to the wood: "Oh dear father, the angel of music did not protect me, why did you lie to me father?" All of a sudden she heard: "To long you've wondered in winter, far from my fathering gaze..."

"I am dreaming, I am dying so nothing can be as it seems.

"I am here Christine. You can hear your angel inside your soul. Do not fear for your guardian has arrived to redeem you."

"Amgel of music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory!"

"Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!" Christine felt a hand stroking her shoulder and her hair. She fell into the arm supporting her, and then all went black.


	10. The Passion's Epiphany

Christine awoke to a calm, punctuated melody. She blinked rapidly, trying to focus her vision, for all she could see was fuzz. As she regained her sight, she saw a bird-shaped bed, that cradled her body, which now felt full and alive. Walking up to her side, she saw Erik as he kneeled to reach her eye level.

"You've awakened. That is good, for a week or so, I 'd thought you had been destroyed forever!"

"My angel. Have I been redeemed?"

"Do not fret, for your Angel shall assure that your soul shall never degenerate again." And he cradled her.


End file.
